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Casual X: 15 X-Men Hook-Ups That Made Fans Uncomfortable

When it comes to forms of entertainment, comic books can sometimes be seen as one-note. However, just as movies, television and novels can feature several different genres, comic books are no stranger to it either. Comics are full of action, drama, suspense, and thrills. Whether you like the action-spy thriller feel of Captain America, or the dark and dangerous feel of Batman and his crusades across Gotham City, there's a specific genre of comic book for every avid reader.

One genre that comfortably makes its home in the world of comics is romance. Yes, even Earth's mightiest heroes have to tackle life's greatest enemy of all, love. Superman has Lois Lane, Spider-Man has Mary Jane, and Batman has...his love of crime? Well, not every hero is meant to have some sort of romantic entanglement. In fact, some heroes are better off single. Case in point, the X-Men. Throughout their career, the members of the X-Men family have hooked up with one another. This provided readers with some great stories of romance... sometimes at least. Most of the time however, these romantic pairings just showed us that perhaps our favorite heroes don't always get a happily ever after. Here are 15 absolutely terrible X-Men relationships that really never should have been.

15 WOLVERINE AND STORM

The relationship between Wolverine and Storm could have been a great one. There wasn't anything wrong with the couple, and their fling had been hinted at before with subtle-yet-flirtatious moments between the two super popular mutants. Their relationship was so strong that it even spanned across different universes, such as the Ultimate Universe.

However, fans weren't too happy with Storm's departure from her relationship with Black Panther. T'challa and Ororo were a power couple, and Marvel didn't really give readers enough time to recover from seeing one of their favorite couples break apart before throwing Storm into another one. It also didn't help that Wolverine was a couple centuries older than Storm, but when you're a mutant with a healing factor, that's the case with most of your ill-fated relationships.

14 KITTY PRYDE AND ICEMAN

Nowadays, Bobby "Iceman" Drake is an icon for the LGBTQ community. Before coming out as gay however, Iceman was paired by fans and comic writers alike with several of his female X-men teammates. Fans expected him to end up with someone like Jean Grey or Polaris, but he ended up with the phasing mutant known as Shadowcat, aka Kitty Pryde.

Pryde phased her way right into Iceman's heart, and while the relationship was sweet, fans didn't enjoy it too much. This was likely because of how it randomly came out of nowhere, and how it was clearly an attempt on Kitty's part to rebound after her last failed relationship with another of her fellow X-Men teammates, Colossus. Needless to say, their relationship didn't last long.

13 MAGNETO AND ROGUE

Comic book characters hardly ever age. Sure, there have been isolated stories, such as with Wolverine and "Old Man Logan", that have given us glimpse at superheroes in their elderly years, but for the most part, our favorite heroes tend to stay the same age forever and ever. However, it's quite obvious that some characters are older than others, such as the metal-mending mutant known as Magneto.

The gray-haired supervillain is definitely much older than the other members of the X-Men, but this didn't stop him from getting into a relationship with Rogue. What makes this already weird pairing even weirder (and completely creepy) is that Rogue saw Magneto as somewhat of a father figure, meaning that he was essentially having an affair with his own daughter. Gross.

12 PROFESSOR X AND JEAN GREY

Professor Charles Xavier loves all of his students, but not exactly equally. It's quite clear that he has a fondness for the members of his superhero team, the X-Men. After all, he essentially named the team after himself using the first letter of his own name. However, there's one member of the team that he's definitely shown to prefer more than any other, to a rather creepy amount: Jean Grey.

That's right, the elderly Professor Xavier had a thing for the vessel of the Dark Phoenix herself. What makes this odd love story extremely taboo is that he apparently began to fall for her while she was still an underage member of his young X-Men team. Luckily, no writer has ever fully explored this bizarre pairing.

11 CYCLOPS AND MADELYNE PRYOR

The relationship between Cyclops and Jean Grey is one of the most well-known comic book relationships of all time. The two X-Men were on and off throughout their time with the team, and even when she became the vessel for a destructive space entity, Scott Summers still loved Jean.

So what did Summers do after Jean died at the end of the "Phoenix Saga"? Why, fell in love with and married her clone of course! The relationship between Cyclops and Jean's clone Madelyne Pryor is one of the worst and most abusive comic book relationships ever. They constantly argued, and Cyclops eventually left her and their newborn child behind after Jean was resurrected -- kind of a messed up thing to do for the heroic leader of the X-Men.

10 KITTY PRYDE AND COLOSSUS

There's nothing inherently wrong about Colossus and Kitty Pryde's relationship once they get in one. They treat each other fairly, hardly ever argue, and probably would have kept their fairly strong relationship had Colossus not become the newest vessel for the Dark Phoenix. That's a definite deal breaker.

The real issue with their relationship is that it was pretty forced. Depending on the writer, Kitty and Colossus were either very close or barely friends past their shared affiliation with the X-Men. Oh, and there was also the fact that Colossus had a thing for Kitty when she was only 14 years old. Sure, they didn't actually start dating until she became of age, but it's still a very strange and awkward situation that we certainly felt uncomfortable reading.

9 BEAST AND ABIGAIL BRAND

Henry "Hank" McCoy was born with abnormally long arms and legs and huge hands and feet, making his appearance similar to that of a hairless gorilla. Eventually, Hank's mutation became more and more prominent as he got older, giving him blue fur, fangs, and sharp claws. While Beast was known for keeping his head in books and focusing on his own science experiments, the furry X-Man would eventually find himself in the sights of Cupid's arrow when he met Abigail Brand.

The pyrokinetic superhero joined the X-Men and made it very clear to Beast (and to readers) that she had a strong attraction to him. It could be argued that since Beast is technically human, just with animal-like mutations, that this relationship is totally fine. But seeing as how Abigail fell for Beast after seeing him in his animal form, we can't help but feel a little uncomfortable about it.

8 NIGHTCRAWLER AND AMANDA SEFTON

As a blue, demon-like mutant with three fingers and a pointy tail, Nightcrawler doesn't have a lot of luck when it comes to finding a significant other in the romance department. The teleporting mutant has a hard time finding love, so when he finally finds it with fellow X-Men associate Amanda Sefton, readers can't help but feel happy for super happy for him and his newfound love.

That is, until it's revealed that Sefton is actually Jimaine Szardos, Nightcrawler's adoptive sister, in disguise. Nightcrawler and Szardos had known each other since they were young, so the sudden realization that he'd been dating his sister shocked the blue mutant. However, it clearly wasn't that big of a shock, as Nightcrawler and Szardos continued their relationship for a while after this creepy reveal.

7 EMMA FROST AND CYCLOPS

Comic book history is fairly flexible. Depending on the era and the writer, a superhero's story may have some slight changes made to it. However, there are a few exceptions, a few rules set in stone in comic history that can't be changed. Uncle Ben has to die, Bruce Wayne has to be orphaned in order to become Batman, and Cyclops has to be an absolutely terrible person whenever romance is involved.

This was certainly the case when Scott Summers found himself in a forbidden affair with the deceptive Emma Frost. Frost seduced Summers by making herself look more like Jean Grey, causing him to cheat on his fiery wife and eventually get into a new relationship with Emma. Cyclops ultimately stabbed Frost in the back, officially ending their terrible relationship.

6 MYSTIQUE AND AZAZEL

Mystique is one of the most powerful female mutants of all time. The blue shape-shifting mutant is a worthy adversary, and sometimes ally, of Professor X and his super team of mutants. But even a fierce and independent character such as Mystique has her low points an this is definitely one of them.

One such dark time during her long history was her relationship with the demon Azazel. After seducing Mystique, Azazel impregnates her and promptly abandons her with the newborn child. Mystique then decides to throw the baby off of a cliff and enact revenge on her demonic ex. Luckily for the child however, he just so happened to be the teleporting mutant Nightcrawler, and teleported himself to safety before he hit the cliff bottom.

5 ROGUE AND GAMBIT

When they're apart, Rogue and Gambit are two powerful mutants with exceptional abilities and leadership skills. When together, they could be the best part of truly scandalous dramatic reality TV show. Rogue and Gambit have had more downs then they have had ups, and while they never really got to the point of Cyclops and Madelyne Pryor, their dramatic on-again/off-again relationship put both heroes in a nasty light.

They often brought their teammates into their problems, never really solving them and instead just burying them even deeper until they resurfaced with force. It's true that drama is one of the X-Men comic's most prominent genre, but Rogue and Gambit often took it to a level that was more awkward and unnecessary than it was captivating.

4 MULTIPLE MAN AND SIRYN

Multiple Man and Siryn are two lesser known X-Men. While they never really joined the main team, the couple were often seen fighting alongside the X-Factor and Muir Island X-Men teams. Multiple Man, as his name suggests, has the ability to duplicate himself, with each of his clones having their own consciousness. Siryn, the daughter of sonic screaming mutant Banshee, possesses the same ear-piercing powers as her father.

With that in mind, it would be smart of Multiple Man not to anger his powerful significant other. Rather than take that sound advice however, Multiple Man decided to create a clone of himself so he could sleep with Siryn and another woman. He even forgot which one he actually slept with. Needless to say, their relationship didn't last long after that.

3 ANGEL AND HUSK

For some odd and incredibly taboo reason, a lot of X-Men couples have a large age difference, with at least one person in the couple being underage or very close to it. This is the case when Angel, a mutant on the brink of middle age, has a love affair with the teenage shape-shifting mutant Husk.

Rather than keep this affair a secret, the two make it public in the worst way possible; by consummating their love right in front of their fellow X-Men. Angel whisks Husk high into the air, and they proceed to "do the deed" mid-flight, throwing articles of clothing down at the ground where their teammates are watching in horror down below.

2 MADISON JEFFRIES AND DANGER

Madison Jeffries is a powerful mutant with the ability to phase his own consciousness into machines, allowing him to control any piece of technology from airplanes to robotic suits. Being that his power has a lot to do with the manipulation of machines and non-living things, Jeffries has always felt a bit of a disconnection from his fellow human beings. This makes finding a partner a difficult task for the X-Man.

Luckily, comic writer Joss Whedon created the perfect candidate for Mr. Jeffries in the form of Danger. Danger is a sentient A.I. machine, formerly used for the X-Men training room. To make matters even weirder for readers, before becoming a member of the X-Men herself, Danger actually used her newfound sentience and knowledge of the X-Men to try and kill them. This likely made things even more awkward when Jeffries tried to bring his new girlfriend around his teammates.

1 SCARLET WITCH AND QUICKSILVER

Pietro and Wanda Maximoff are the powerful offspring of the villainous mutant Magneto. Pietro became the speedy hero Quicksilver, while Wanda became the mystical mutant Scarlet Witch. However, the greatest power that they possess is their unbreakable devotion to each other. These powerful siblings have even gone so far as to switch from hero to villain in the blink of an eye for each other.

Unfortunately, the Ultimate Universe version of these two never seemed to get the whole "With great power comes great responsibility" talk. Their greatest asset quickly became their worst when it was revealed that the Ultimate Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver were engaged in some acts that siblings should definitely never be engaged in. To make matters worse, Wolverine knew about their secret affair, and apparently didn't really seem to mind all that much.